Techniques for sharing control of assigning tasks between an external pairing system and a task assignment system with an internal pairing system

ABSTRACT

Techniques for sharing control of assigning tasks between an external pairing system and a task assignment system with an internal pairing system are disclosed. In one embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method for sharing control of assigning tasks between an external pairing system and a task assignment system with an internal pairing system comprising receiving, from the task assignment system, a plurality of task pairing requests and an agent pairing request, wherein each task request of the plurality of task pairing requests is assigned to one of a first pairing strategy and a second pairing strategy. The agent pairing request may indicate an agent that is available for pairing. The method may further comprise transmitting, to the task assignment system, a pairing recommendation being based in part on the plurality of task pairing requests, the first pairing strategy, the second pairing strategy, and the agent pairing request.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This patent application is a continuation of U.S. Pat. Application No.17/527,684, filed Nov. 16, 2021, which is a continuation of U.S. Pat.Application No. 17/168,699, filed Feb. 5, 2021, now U.S. Pat. No.11,206,331, which is a continuation of U.S. Pat. Application No.17/167,920, filed Feb. 4, 2021, now U.S. Pat. No. 11,050,886, whichclaims priority to U.S. Provisional Pat. Application No. 62/970,233,filed Feb. 5, 2020, each of which is hereby incorporated by referenceherein in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure generally relates to task assignment systems and,more particularly, to techniques for sharing control of assigning tasksbetween an external pairing system and a task assignment system with aninternal pairing system.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

A typical pairing system algorithmically assigns tasks arriving at atask assignment system to agents available to handle those tasks. Attimes, the task assignment system may be in an “L1 state” and haveagents available and waiting for assignment to tasks. At other times,the task assignment system may be in an “L2 state” and have taskswaiting in one or more queues for an agent to become available forassignment. At yet other times, the task assignment system may be in an“L3” state and have multiple agents available and multiple tasks waitingfor assignment.

Some traditional pairing systems assign tasks to agents ordered based ontime of arrival, and agents receive tasks ordered based on the time whenthose agents became available. This strategy may be referred to as a“first-in, first-out,” “FIFO,” or “round-robin” strategy. For example,in an L2 environment, when an agent becomes available, the task at thehead of the queue would be selected for assignment to the agent.

Other traditional pairing systems may implement a performance-basedrouting (PBR) strategy for prioritizing higher-performing agents fortask assignment. Under PBR, for example, the highest-performing agentamong available agents receives the next available task.

“Behavioral Pairing” or “BP” strategies, for assigning tasks to agents,improve upon traditional pairing methods. BP targets balancedutilization of agents while simultaneously improving overall taskassignment system performance potentially beyond what FIFO or PBRmethods may achieve in practice.

Traditionally, a pairing system is integrated into a task assignmentsystem and is capable of switching between pairing strategies (e.g.,FIFO, PBR, BP, etc.) as needed. Switching between different pairingstrategies may be straightforward for the pairing system integrated intothe task assignment given that all the states (e.g., information andevents about tasks and agents, pairing strategy used for differenttasks, etc.) of the task assignment system may be readily available toor otherwise retrievable by the pairing system. However, if a pairingsystem is external to a task assignment system, all the states of thetask assignment system may not be available to the pairing system forefficient pairing of tasks with agents. Thus, it may be understood thatthere may be a need for techniques for sharing control of assigningtasks between an external pairing system and a task assignment systemwith an internal pairing system.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

Techniques for sharing control of assigning tasks between an externalpairing system and a task assignment system with an internal pairingsystem are disclosed. In one particular embodiment, the techniques maybe realized as a method for pairing contacts and agents in a contactcenter system comprising: determining, by at least one computerprocessor communicatively coupled to and configured to operate in thecontact center system, a first set of contacts to be paired using afirst pairing strategy; determining, by the at least one computerprocessor, a second set of contacts to be paired using a second pairingstrategy; determining, by the at least one computer processor, a thirdset of contacts to be paired using the first pairing strategy;determining, by the at least one computer processor, a fourth set ofcontacts to be paired using the second pairing strategy; and connecting,by the at least one computer processor, contacts of the first, second,third, and fourth sets of contacts to agents in the contact center basedon a pairing strategy associated with each contact, wherein the secondset of contacts arrived after the first set of contacts, wherein thethird set of contacts arrived after the second set of contacts, whereinthe fourth set of contacts arrived after the third set of contacts,wherein all contacts of the second set of contacts must be paired, usingthe second pairing strategy, prior to pairing any of the contacts of thefourth set of contacts, wherein the connecting further comprisesselecting at least one contact of the third set of contacts for pairingbefore all contacts of the first set of contacts are paired andselecting at least one contact of the first set of contacts for pairingbefore all contacts of the third set of contacts are paired, whereinthere exists an agent in the contact center system available for pairingunder both the first and second pairing strategies.

In accordance with other aspects of this particular embodiment, thefirst pairing strategy may be a behavioral pairing strategy.

In accordance with other aspects of this particular embodiment, thesecond pairing strategy may be a first-in, first-out (FIFO) pairingstrategy.

In accordance with other aspects of this particular embodiment, themethod may further comprise selecting, by the at least one computerprocessor, the first pairing strategy or the second pairing strategybased on a tie-breaking strategy, and selecting, by the at least onecomputer processor, a contact of the first, second, third, or fourthsets of contacts for pairing based on the selected pairing strategy.

In accordance with other aspects of this particular embodiment, thetie-breaking strategy may be one of a queue flush strategy, a queuelength strategy, a queue wait strategy, or a sequential strategy.

In accordance with other aspects of this particular embodiment, thefirst pairing strategy may be provided by an external pairing system,and the second pairing strategy may be provided by one of the externalpairing system and an internal pairing system of the contact centersystem.

In another embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a methodcomprising: determining, by at least one computer processorcommunicatively coupled to and configured to operate in a contact centersystem, a first contact waiting in the contact center system;determining, by the at least one computer processor, a second contactwaiting in the contact center system; pairing, by the at least onecomputer processor, the second contact based on information about thefirst contact; and after pairing the second contact, pairing, by the atleast one computer processor, the first contact based on informationabout the second contact, wherein the information about the secondcontact comprises information other than the pairing of the secondcontact.

In accordance with other aspects of this particular embodiment, pairingthe first contact and pairing the second contact may be based on a firstpairing strategy.

In accordance with other aspects of this particular embodiment, themethod may further comprise determining, by the at least one computerprocessor, at least one additional contact waiting in the contact centersystem; selecting, by the at least one computer processor, a pairingstrategy from a plurality of pairing strategies, wherein the pluralityof pairing strategies comprises the first pairing strategy; and pairing,by the at least one computer processor, the at least one additionalcontact based on the selected pairing strategy.

In accordance with other aspects of this particular embodiment,selecting the pairing strategy may be based on a tie-breaking strategy.

In accordance with other aspects of this particular embodiment, the tiebreaking strategy may be one of a queue flush strategy, a queue lengthstrategy, a queue wait strategy, or a sequential strategy.

In accordance with other aspects of this particular embodiment, at leastone of the information about the first contact and the information aboutthe second contact may comprise a time of arrival.

In another embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a methodcomprising: receiving, by at least one computer processorcommunicatively coupled to and configured to operate in a contact centersystem, a first plurality of contacts associated with a first pairingstrategy; receiving, by the at least one computer processor, a secondplurality of contacts associated with a second pairing strategy;receiving, by the at least one computer processor, a third plurality ofcontacts associated with the first pairing strategy; receiving, by theat least one computer processor, a plurality of available agents,pairing, by the at least one computer processor, each of the pluralityof available agents to contacts of the first or third pluralities ofcontacts using the first pairing strategy; wherein a number of theplurality of available agents is greater than a number of the firstplurality of contacts, wherein the second plurality of contacts isreceived after the first plurality of contacts, herein the thirdplurality of contacts is received after the second plurality ofcontacts, wherein any prioritization applied to the third plurality ofcontacts does not imply an assignment of the third plurality of contactsprior to the second plurality of contacts, wherein no other contactswere received between the receiving of the first and second pluralitiesof contacts, wherein, if an agent of the plurality of agents becomesavailable after pairing each of the plurality of available agents,pairing said agent to contacts of the first, second, or thirdpluralities of contacts based on a tie-breaking strategy.

In accordance with other aspects of this particular embodiment, theprioritization may arise from a number of contacts pending assignment.

In accordance with other aspects of this particular embodiment, theprioritization may arise from an expected wait time.

In accordance with other aspects of this particular embodiment, thetie-breaking strategy may comprise one of a queue length strategy or aqueue wait strategy.

In accordance with other aspects of this particular embodiment, thetie-breaking strategy may comprise generating a random number andselecting a contact for pairing based on the generated random number.

In accordance with other aspects of this particular embodiment, therandom number may be weighted according to a proportion of contactsassociated with either the first pairing strategy or the second pairingstrategy.

In another embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method forsharing control of assigning tasks between an external pairing systemand a task assignment system with an internal pairing system comprisingreceiving, by at least one computer processor communicatively coupled toand configured to operate in the external pairing system, from the taskassignment system over an application programming interface, a pluralityof task pairing requests and an agent pairing request, wherein each taskrequest of the plurality of task pairing requests is assigned to one ofa first pairing strategy and a second pairing strategy, wherein theagent pairing request indicates an agent that is available for pairing,and transmitting, by the at least one computer processor, to the taskassignment system, a pairing recommendation, wherein the pairingrecommendation is based at least in part on the plurality of taskpairing requests, the first pairing strategy, the second pairingstrategy, and the agent pairing request.

In accordance with other aspects of this particular embodiment, theexternal pairing system may perform a tie-breaking strategy to choosebetween the first pairing strategy and the second pairing strategy.

In accordance with other aspects of this particular embodiment, thetie-breaking strategy may be one of a sequential strategy, queue lengthstrategy, queue wait strategy, and queue flush strategy.

In accordance with other aspects of this particular embodiment, the taskassignment system may be a contact center system.

In accordance with other aspects of this particular embodiment, thefirst pairing strategy may be a behavioral pairing strategy.

In accordance with other aspects of this particular embodiment, thesecond pairing strategy may be one of a first-in, first-out strategy anda performance-based routing strategy.

In accordance with other aspects of this particular embodiment, thefirst pairing strategy may be provided by the external pairing system,and the second pairing strategy may be provided by one of the externalpairing system and an internal pairing system of the task assignmentsystem.

In another embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method forsharing control of assigning tasks between an external pairing systemand a task assignment system with an internal pairing system comprisingtransmitting, by at least one computer processor communicatively coupledto and configured to operate in the task assignment system, to theexternal pairing system over an application programming interface, aplurality of task pairing requests and an agent pairing request, whereineach task request of the plurality of task pairing requests is assignedto one of a first pairing strategy and a second pairing strategy,wherein the agent pairing request indicates an agent that is availablefor pairing, and receiving, by the at least one computer processor, fromthe external pairing system, a pairing recommendation, wherein thepairing recommendation is based at least in part on the plurality oftask pairing requests, the first pairing strategy, the second pairingstrategy, and the agent pairing request.

In accordance with other aspects of this particular embodiment, theexternal pairing system may perform a tie-breaking strategy to choosebetween the first pairing strategy and the second pairing strategy.

In accordance with other aspects of this particular embodiment, thetie-breaking strategy may be one of a sequential strategy, queue lengthstrategy, queue wait strategy, and queue flush strategy.

In accordance with other aspects of this particular embodiment, the taskassignment system may be a contact center system.

In accordance with other aspects of this particular embodiment, thefirst pairing strategy may be a behavioral pairing strategy.

In accordance with other aspects of this particular embodiment, thesecond pairing strategy may be one of a first-in, first-out strategy anda performance-based routing strategy.

In accordance with other aspects of this particular embodiment, thefirst pairing strategy may be provided by the external pairing system,and the second pairing strategy may be provided by one of the externalpairing system and the internal pairing system of the task assignmentsystem.

In another particular embodiment, the techniques may be realized as asystem comprising at least one computer processor communicativelycoupled to and configured to operate in a task assignment system or acontact center system, wherein the at least one computer processor isfurther configured to perform the steps in the above-described methods.

In another particular embodiment, the techniques may be realized as anarticle of manufacture comprising a non-transitory processor readablemedium and instructions stored on the medium, wherein the instructionsare configured to be readable from the medium by at least one computerprocessor communicatively coupled to and configured to operate in a taskassignment system or a contact center system and thereby cause the atleast one computer processor to operate so as to perform the steps inthe above-described methods.

The present disclosure will now be described in more detail withreference to particular embodiments thereof as shown in the accompanyingdrawings. While the present disclosure is described below with referenceto particular embodiments, it should be understood that the presentdisclosure is not limited thereto. Those of ordinary skill in the arthaving access to the teachings herein will recognize additionalimplementations, modifications, and embodiments, as well as other fieldsof use, which are within the scope of the present disclosure asdescribed herein, and with respect to which the present disclosure maybe of significant utility.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

To facilitate a fuller understanding of the present disclosure,reference is now made to the accompanying drawings, in which likeelements are referenced with like numerals. These drawings should not beconstrued as limiting the present disclosure, but are intended to beillustrative only.

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a pairing system according toembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a task assignment system according toembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of a task assignment system with anexternal pairing system according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 4 shows a flow diagram of a method of sharing control of assigningtasks between an external pairing system and a task assignment systemwith an internal pairing system according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 5 shows a flow diagram of a method of sharing control of assigningtasks between an external pairing system and a task assignment systemwith an internal pairing system according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A typical pairing system algorithmically assigns tasks arriving at atask assignment system to agents available to handle those tasks. Attimes, the task assignment system may be in an “L1 state” and haveagents available and waiting for assignment to tasks. At other times,the task assignment system may be in an “L2 state” and have taskswaiting in one or more queues for an agent to become available forassignment. At yet other times, the task assignment system may be in an“L3” state and have multiple agents available and multiple tasks waitingfor assignment. An example of a task assignment system is a contactcenter system that receives contacts (e.g., telephone calls, internetchat sessions, emails, etc.) to be assigned to agents.

Some traditional pairing systems assign tasks to agents ordered based ontime of arrival, and agents receive tasks ordered based on the time whenthose agents became available. This strategy may be referred to as a“first-in, first-out,” “FIFO,” or “round-robin” strategy. For example,in an L2 environment, when an agent becomes available, the task at thehead of the queue would be selected for assignment to the agent.

Other traditional pairing systems may implement a performance-basedrouting (PBR) strategy for prioritizing higher-performing agents fortask assignment. Under PBR, for example, the highest-performing agentamong available agents receives the next available task.

“Behavioral Pairing” or “BP” strategies, for assigning tasks to agentsthat improve upon traditional pairing methods. BP targets balancedutilization of agents while simultaneously improving overall taskassignment system performance potentially beyond what FIFO or PBRmethods will achieve in practice. This is a remarkable achievementinasmuch as BP acts on the same tasks and same agents as FIFO or PBRmethods, approximately balancing the utilization of agents as FIFOprovides, while improving overall task assignment system performancebeyond what either FIFO or PBR provides in practice. BP improvesperformance by assigning agent and task pairs in a fashion that takesinto consideration the assignment of potential subsequent agent and taskpairs such that, when the benefits of all assignments are aggregated,they may exceed those of FIFO and PBR strategies.

Various BP strategies may be used, such as a diagonal model BP strategyor a network flow BP strategy. These task assignment strategies andothers are described in detail for a contact center context in, e.g.,U.S. Pat. Nos. 9,300,802, 9,781,269, 9,787,841, and 9,930,180, all ofwhich are hereby incorporated by reference herein. BP strategies may beapplied in an L1 environment (agent surplus, one task; select amongmultiple available/idle agents), an L2 environment (task surplus, oneavailable/idle agent; select among multiple tasks in queue), and an L3environment (multiple agents and multiple tasks; select among pairingpermutations).

Traditionally, a pairing system is integrated into a task assignmentsystem and is capable of switching between pairing strategies (e.g.,FIFO, PBR, BP, etc.) as needed. Switching between different pairingstrategies may be straightforward for the pairing system integrated intothe task assignment given that all the states (e.g., information andevents about tasks and agents, pairing strategy used for differenttasks, etc.) of the task assignment system may be readily available toor otherwise retrievable by the pairing system. However, if a pairingsystem is external to a task assignment system, all the states of thetask assignment system may not be available to the pairing system forefficient pairing of tasks with agents. As explained in detail below,embodiments of the present disclosure relate to techniques for sharingcontrol of a task assignment system between an external pairing systemand an internal pairing system.

The description herein describes network elements, computers, and/orcomponents of a system and method for pairing strategies in a taskassignment system that may include one or more modules. As used herein,the term “module” may be understood to refer to computing software,firmware, hardware, and/or various combinations thereof. Modules,however, are not to be interpreted as software which is not implementedon hardware, firmware, or recorded on a non-transitory processorreadable recordable storage medium (i.e., modules are not software perse). It is noted that the modules are exemplary. The modules may becombined, integrated, separated, and/or duplicated to support variousapplications. Also, a function described herein as being performed at aparticular module may be performed at one or more other modules and/orby one or more other devices instead of or in addition to the functionperformed at the particular module. Further, the modules may beimplemented across multiple devices and/or other components local orremote to one another. Additionally, the modules may be moved from onedevice and added to another device, and/or may be included in bothdevices.

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a pairing system 100 according toembodiments of the present disclosure. The pairing system 100 may beincluded in a task assignment system (e.g., contact center system) orincorporated in a component or module (e.g., a pairing module) of a taskassignment system for helping to assign tasks (e.g., contacts) amongvarious agents.

The pairing system 100 may include a task assignment module 110 that isconfigured to pair (e.g., match, assign) incoming tasks to availableagents. In the example of FIG. 1 , m tasks 120A-120m are received over agiven period, and n agents 130A-130n are available during the givenperiod. Each of the m tasks may be assigned to one of the n agents forservicing or other types of task processing. In the example of FIG. 1 ,m and n may be arbitrarily large finite integers greater than or equalto one. In a real-world task assignment system, such as a contact centersystem, there may be dozens, hundreds, etc. of agents logged into thecontact center system to interact with contacts during a shift, and thecontact center system may receive dozens, hundreds, thousands, etc. ofcontacts (e.g., telephone calls, internet chat sessions, emails, etc.)during the shift.

In some embodiments, a task assignment strategy module 140 may becommunicatively coupled to and/or configured to operate in the pairingsystem 100. The task assignment strategy module 140 may implement one ormore task assignment strategies (or “pairing strategies”) for assigningindividual tasks to individual agents (e.g., pairing contacts withcontact center agents). A variety of different task assignmentstrategies may be devised and implemented by the task assignmentstrategy module 140. In some embodiments, a FIFO strategy may beimplemented in which, for example, the longest-waiting agent receivesthe next available task (in L1 environments) or the longest-waiting taskis assigned to the next available agent (in L2 environments). In otherembodiments, a PBR strategy for prioritizing higher-performing agentsfor task assignment may be implemented. Under PBR, for example, thehighest-performing agent among available agents receives the nextavailable task. In yet other embodiments, a BP strategy may be used foroptimally assigning tasks to agents using information about either tasksor agents, or both. Various BP strategies may be used, such as adiagonal model BP strategy or an off-diagonal strategy such as a networkflow BP strategy. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 9,300,802; 9,781,269; 9,787,841;and 9,930,180.

In some embodiments, a historical assignment module 150 may becommunicatively coupled to and/or configured to operate in the pairingsystem 100 via other modules such as the task assignment module 110and/or the task assignment strategy module 140. The historicalassignment module 150 may be responsible for various functions such asmonitoring, storing, retrieving, and/or outputting information abouttask-agent assignments that have already been made. For example, thehistorical assignment module 150 may monitor the task assignment module110 to collect information about task assignments in a given period.Each record of a historical task assignment may include information suchas an agent identifier, a task or task type identifier, offer or offerset identifier, outcome information, or a pairing strategy identifier(i.e., an identifier indicating whether a task assignment was made usinga BP strategy, or some other pairing strategy such as a FIFO or PBRpairing strategy).

In some embodiments and for some contexts, additional information may bestored. For example, in a call center context, the historical assignmentmodule 150 may also store information about the time a call started, thetime a call ended, the phone number dialed, and the caller’s phonenumber. For another example, in a dispatch center (e.g., “truck roll”)context, the historical assignment module 150 may also store informationabout the time a driver (i.e., field agent) departs from the dispatchcenter, the route recommended, the route taken, the estimated traveltime, the actual travel time, the amount of time spent at the customersite handling the customer’s task, etc.

In some embodiments, the historical assignment module 150 may generate apairing model or a similar computer processor-generated model based on aset of historical assignments for a period of time (e.g., the past week,the past month, the past year, etc.), which may be used by the taskassignment strategy module 140 to make task assignment recommendationsor instructions to the task assignment module 110.

In some embodiments, a benchmarking module 160 may be communicativelycoupled to and/or configured to operate in the pairing system 100 viaother modules such as the task assignment module 110 and/or thehistorical assignment module 150. The benchmarking module 160 maydesignate incoming tasks as “ON” or “OFF” tasks. As described later, thepairing system handles the assignment of tasks to agents differentlybased on the “ON” or “OFF” labels assigned to the tasks. In someembodiments, the benchmarking module 160 may perform other functions,such as establishing a benchmarking schedule for cycling among variouspairing strategies, tracking cohorts (e.g., base and measurement groupsof historical assignments), etc. In some embodiments, the benchmarkingmodule may be programmed with different benchmarking techniques such as,epoch benchmarking and inline benchmarking. Benchmarking is described indetail for the contact center context in, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 9,712,676,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.

In some embodiments, the benchmarking module 160 may output or otherwisereport or use the relative performance measurements. The relativeperformance measurements may be used to assess the quality of a pairingstrategy to determine, for example, whether a different pairing strategy(or a different pairing model) should be used, or to measure the overallperformance (or performance gain) that was achieved within the taskassignment system while it was optimized or otherwise configured to useone pairing strategy instead of another.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a task assignment system 200 accordingto embodiments of the present disclosure. The task assignment system 200may include a central switch 270. The central switch 270 may receiveincoming tasks 220 (e.g., telephone calls, internet chat sessions,emails, etc.) or support outbound connections to contacts via a dialer,a telecommunications network, or other modules (not shown). The centralswitch 270 may include routing hardware and software for helping toroute tasks among one or more queues (or subcenters), or to one or morePrivate Branch Exchange (“PBX”) or Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)routing components or other queuing or switching components within thetask assignment system 200. The central switch 270 may not be necessaryif there is only one queue (or subcenter), or if there is only one PBXor ACD routing component in the task assignment system 200.

If more than one queue (or subcenter) is part of the task assignmentsystem 200, each queue may include at least one switch (e.g., switches280A and 280B). The switches 280A and 280B may be communicativelycoupled to the central switch 270. Each switch for each queue may becommunicatively coupled to a plurality (or “pool”) of agents. Eachswitch may support a certain number of agents (or “seats”) to be loggedin at one time. At any given time, a logged-in agent may be availableand waiting to be connected to a task, or the logged-in agent may beunavailable for any of a number of reasons, such as being connected toanother task, performing certain post-call functions such as logginginformation about the call, or taking a break. In the example of FIG. 2, the central switch 270 routes tasks to one of two queues via switch280A and switch 280B, respectively. Each of the switches 280A and 280Bare shown with two agents each. Agents 230A and 230B may be logged intoswitch 280A, and agents 230C and 230D may be logged into switch 280B.

The task assignment system 200 may also be communicatively coupled to anintegrated pairing system 290. The pairing system 290 may be native to(or built in) the task assignment system 200 (i.e., “first-party”) ormay be a service provided by, for example, a third-party vendor. In theexample of FIG. 2 , the pairing system 290 may be communicativelycoupled to one or more switches in the switch system of the taskassignment system 200, such as central switch 270, switch 280A, andswitch 280B. In some embodiments, switches of the task assignment system200 may be communicatively coupled to multiple pairing systems. In someembodiments, the pairing system 290 may be embedded within a componentof the task assignment system 200 (e.g., embedded in or otherwiseintegrated with a switch). An example of the pairing system 290 is thepairing system 100, which is described above.

The pairing system 290 may receive information from a switch (e.g.,switch 280A) about agents logged into the switch (e.g., agents 230A and230B) and about incoming tasks 220 via another switch (e.g., centralswitch 270) or, in some embodiments, from a network (e.g., the Internetor a telecommunications network) (not shown). The pairing system 290 mayprocess this information to determine which tasks should be paired(e.g., matched, assigned, distributed, routed) with which agents.

For example, in an L1 state, multiple agents may be available andwaiting for connection to a task, and a task arrives at the taskassignment system 200 via a network or the central switch 270. Asexplained above, without the pairing system 290, a switch will typicallyautomatically distribute the new task to whichever available agent hasbeen waiting the longest amount of time for an agent under a FIFOstrategy, or whichever available agent has been determined to be thehighest-performing agent under a PBR strategy. With the pairing system290, contacts and agents may be given scores (e.g., percentiles orpercentile ranges/bandwidths) according to a pairing model or otherartificial intelligence data model, so that a task may be matched,paired, or otherwise connected to a preferred agent.

In an L2 state, multiple tasks are available and waiting for connectionto an agent, and an agent becomes available. These tasks may be queuedin a switch such as a PBX or ACD device. Without the pairing system 290,a switch will typically connect the newly available agent to whichevertask has been waiting on hold in the queue for the longest amount oftime as in a FIFO strategy or a PBR strategy when agent choice is notavailable. In some task assignment centers, priority queuing may also beincorporated, as previously explained. With the pairing system 290 inthis L2 scenario, as in the L1 state described above, tasks and agentsmay be given percentiles (or percentile ranges/bandwidths, etc.)according to, for example, a model, such as an artificial intelligencemodel, so that an agent becoming available may be matched, paired, orotherwise connected to a preferred task.

In the task assignment system 200, the pairing system 290 may switchbetween pairing strategies based on determining whether a task is an“ON” task or an “OFF” task. The tasks may be assigned these labels bythe benchmarking module 160 as described in FIG. 1 . Given that thepairing system 290 is integrated with-or “internal” to-the taskassignment system 200, states of the task assignment system 200 (e.g.,information and events about tasks and agents, pairing strategy used forevery assignment, etc.) may be readily available to or otherwiseretrievable by the pairing system 290. However, in a task assignmentsystem with an external pairing system, assigning tasks may not be asstraightforward, as will be described next.

FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of a task assignment system 300 with anexternal pairing system 395 according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure. In the task assignment system 300, a switch 380 may route aplurality of tasks 320 to a plurality of agents 330. The switch 380 mayinclude routing hardware and software, or to one or more PBX or ACDrouting components or other queuing or switching components for helpingto route the plurality of tasks 320 among the plurality of agents 330.

In the task assignment system 300, an internal pairing system 390 may becommunicatively coupled to the switch 380. The internal pairing system390 may be native to (or built in) the task assignment system 300 (i.e.,“first-party”) or may be provided by a third-party vendor. Typically,the internal pairing system 390 may implement traditional pairingstrategies (e.g., FIFO or PBR) or some other pairing strategy that maybe proprietary to the task assignment system 300. However, the internalpairing system 300 may also be in the form of the pairing system 100.The internal pairing system 390 may receive or otherwise retrieveinformation from the switch 380 about the agents 330 logged into theswitch 380 and about the incoming tasks 320.

In the task assignment system 300, the external pairing system 395 maybe communicatively coupled to the switch 380 via an interface 385. Theinterface 385 may isolate the task assignment system 300 from theexternal pairing system 395 (e.g., for security purposes), and controlinformation exchanged between the two systems. An example of theinterface 385 may be a public or a private proprietary applicationprogramming interface (API) provided over a network (e.g., the Internetor a telecommunications network) (not shown).

Unlike the internal pairing system 390, the external pairing system 395may only have access to information that is selected and shared by theswitch 380. Such information must be sufficient for the external pairingsystem 395 to determine the optimal task-agent pairing. The externalpairing system 395 may be provided by a third-party vendor and may be inthe form of the pairing system 100 described above. Importantly, theexternal pairing system 395 may provide a pairing strategy (e.g., BP)that improves the performance of the task assignment system 300 whencompared to the pairing strategy (or strategies) of the internal pairingsystem 390. The external pairing system 395 may also provide the same ora similar pairing strategy as that of the internal pairing system 390.

The task assignment system 300 may operate under a shared control, inwhich the switch 380 may send route requests alternately between theinternal pairing system 390 and the external pairing system 395 todetermine which task is to be routed to which agent. The shared controlmay be desirable, for example, when the internal pairing system 390employs a traditional or proprietary pairing strategy (e.g., FIFO orPBR) that may not be provided by the external pairing system 395, whilethe external pairing system 395 is used to provide a higher-performingpairing strategy (e.g., BP).

When the external pairing system 395 includes the same or a similarpairing strategy as that of the internal pairing system 390, the taskassignment system 300 may operate under full control such that theswitch 380 sends all route requests to the external pairing system 395.In other words, the external pairing system 395 has full control ondetermining every task-agent pairing. Under the full control, at times,the external pairing system 395 may simulate/mimic the pairing strategyof the internal pairing system 390 (e.g., FIFO or PBR) and, at othertimes, employ a different pairing strategy (e.g., BP), and send itspairing recommendation to the switch 380 over the interface 385. Theswitch 380 may then assign the tasks 320 to agents 330 based on thepairing recommendation.

In some embodiments, the operational control of the task assignmentsystem 300 may be based on the classification of tasks 320 performedwhen the tasks are received. As the tasks 320 are received, they may beclassified as “ON” tasks or “OFF” tasks. As described with respect toFIG. 1 , the classification of tasks may be performed by a benchmarkingmodule 160 part of pairing system 100. In some embodiments, theclassification of tasks 320 may be performed by the switch 380 of thetask assignment system 300. In some embodiments, the determination ofthe whether a task should be “ON” or “OFF” may be based on one or morepredetermined schemes or an agreement between the task assignment system300 and the external pairing system 395. See U.S. Pat. No. 9,712,676. An“ON” task is a task assigned to an agent by the external pairing module395 using a higher-performing pairing strategy (e.g., BP). An “OFF” taskis a task assigned to an agent using a traditional pairing strategy(e.g., FIFO or PBR) by either the internal pairing module 390 or theexternal pairing module 395. In such cases, the external pairing module395 may assign the “OFF” task in full control of the task assignmentsystem 300, or the internal pairing module 390 may assign the “OFF” taskin shared control of the task assignment system 300.

Traditionally, in an L2 environment, when an agent becomes available,the task at the head of the queue would be selected for assignment tothe agent. However, according to embodiments described in thisdisclosure, when an agent becomes available, switch 380 may generate anevent which is sent to external pairing system 395 and internal pairingsystem 390 informing them that the agent is available for a task 320.The external pairing system 395 may perform a tie-breaking algorithm todetermine whether the agent should be assigned to an “ON” task or an“OFF” task from a queue of tasks 320 that are pending. In case the agentis supposed to be assigned to an “ON” task 320, the external system 395makes the pairing. In case the agent is supposed to be assigned to an“OFF” task, the external system 395 makes the pairing in full controlmode or the internal system 390 makes the pairing in shared controlmode.

An example of assigning a task to an available agent while using atie-breaking algorithm is described below. For example, at the timeswitch 380 determines that an agent 330 is available, there may be aqueue of ten pending tasks, one of which may be assigned to theavailable agent. As each of the ten tasks 320 are received, switch 380in conjunction with the internal pairing system 390 and the externalpairing system 395 may classify the tasks as “ON” or “OFF” (e.g., basedon time of arrival of each task and cycling between ON and OFF atpredetermined intervals (“epoch” benchmarking). The ten tasks 320 thatare pending may be classified as either “ON” tasks or “OFF” tasks asfollows:

$\begin{matrix}\begin{array}{l}\text{1-ON, 2-ON, 3-ON, 4-OFF, 5-OFF, 6-OFF, 7-OFF, 8-OFF,} \\\text{9-ON, 10-ON}\end{array} & \text{­­­(1)}\end{matrix}$

In this example, many tie-breaking strategies may be used in order todetermine which of the pending tasks from queue (1) may be assigned tothe available agent. In some embodiments, a sequential tie-breakingalgorithm may be used. The sequential tie-breaking strategy yieldssimilar results when subjected to epoch or inline benchmarking. However,sequential tie-breaking is most effective when subjected to an inlinebenchmarking system.

The sequential tie-breaking system is applied on the queue of tasks (1)described above. First, the relative positions of the “OFF” tasks aresecured. Therefore, in the order of selected tasks, the fourth, fifth,sixth, seventh, and eighth tasks that will be selected by the taskassignment system 300 from the queue (1), will be the “OFF” tasks in theorder that the “OFF” tasks are present in the queue (1). Upon securingthe position of the “OFF” tasks, there still remain five empty slots fortask assignment. The first, second, third, ninth, and tenth slots. Inapplication of the sequential tie-breaking strategy, because the firstthree tasks are classified as “ON”, the external pairing system 395selects any three “ON” tasks of the five “ON” tasks of queue (1) as thefirst three tasks. Once a task of queue (1) has been selected, theselected task is no longer available for a subsequent selection. In someembodiments, the external pairing system 395 may pick the tenth task,10-ON (also an “ON” task), as the first selection of a task for pairing.Subsequently, the second task, 2-ON, in the list is also an “ON” task.Again, external pairing system 395 may select any of the remaining “ON”tasks as the second selection of a task for pairing. In this example,the external pairing system 395 may select the fourth task, 4-ON, as thesecond selection of a task for pairing. Similarly, the third task, 3-ON,may be selected as the third selection of a task for pairing. Becausethree “ON” tasks have now been selected, the fourth task, 4-OFF, thefifth task, 5-OFF, the sixth task, 6-OFF, the seventh task, 7-OFF, andthe eighth task, 8-OFF will be slotted for pairing in the fourth slot,the fifth slot, the sixth slot, the seventh slot, and the eighth slot,respectively. Then, for example, the ninth task, 9-ON, may be selectedas the fourth selection of a task for pairing, and the first task, 1-ON,may be selected as the tenth selection of a task for pairing. In suchexample, the order in which the tasks were eventually assigned may lookas follows:

$\begin{matrix}\begin{array}{l}\text{10-ON, 2-ON, 3-ON, 4-OFF, 5-OFF, 6-OFF, 7-OFF, 8-OFF,} \\\text{9-ON, 1-ON}\end{array} & \text{­­­(2)}\end{matrix}$

In this example, the tenth task, 10-ON, is selected for pairing based oninformation about the first task, 1-ON; that is, the tenth task, 10-ONis selected for pairing based on the information that the first task,1-ON, is an ON task. Similarly, the first task, 1-ON is selected forpairing based on information about the tenth task, 1-ON; that is, thefirst task, 1-ON is selected for pairing based on the information thatthe tenth task, 10-ON, is an ON task. Accordingly, the tenth task,10-ON, is selected for pairing based on information about the firsttask, 1-ON, which does not comprise pairing information of the firsttask, 1-ON.

In this example, the tasks 320 comprise three sets of tasks. A first setof tasks includes task 1-ON, task 2-ON, and task 3-ON; a second set oftasks includes task 4-OFF, task 5-OFF, task 6-OFF, task 7-OFF, and task8-OFF; a third set of tasks includes task 9-ON and task 10-ON. In thisexample, no tasks are received between receiving the first set of tasksand the second set of tasks, and no tasks are received between receivingthe second set of tasks and the third set of tasks. In some embodiments,the tasks 320 includes a fourth set of tasks including another number ofOFF tasks. In some embodiments, the tasks 320 or the queue (1) includesany number of sets of tasks. Sets of tasks including OFF tasks arepaired sequentially; that is, the tasks in the second set of tasks arenecessarily paired before any of the tasks in the fourth set of tasks.Accordingly, tasks in the fourth set of tasks would be paired before anysubsequent set of tasks comprising OFF tasks. However, as the aboveassignment (2) demonstrated, tasks from the third set of tasks can beselected for pairing before all tasks of the first set of tasks havebeen selected for pairing. As the above assignment (2) alsodemonstrated, tasks of the first set of tasks may be paired prior topairing all tasks of the third set of tasks. In some embodiments, alltasks from the third set of tasks are selected for pairing before alltasks from the first set of tasks are selected for pairing. In someembodiments, some tasks from the third set of tasks are selected forpairing before all tasks from the first set of tasks are selected forpairing; and some tasks for the first set of tasks are selected forpairing before all tasks from the third set of tasks are selected forpairing.

Accordingly, as queue (1) and assignment (2) demonstrated, the taskassignment system 300 may determine a task assignment for a slot inassignment (2) based on a classification of a task in the correspondingslot of queue (1). For example, when selecting a task for assignment tothe first slot in assignment (2), the task assignment system 300identifies that the task in the first slot of queue (1) is classified as‘ON’. When the ‘ON’ classification corresponds to a BP strategy, thetask assignment system 300 selects a task for the first slot ofassignment (2) from any available ON tasks in queue (1) based on the BPstrategy. For example, when selecting a task assignment for the fourthslot in assignment (2), the task assignment system 300 identifies thatthe task fourth slot of queue (1) is classified as ‘OFF’. When the ‘OFF’classification corresponds to a FIFO pairing strategy, the taskassignment system 300 selects tasks from queue (1) for the fourth slotbased on an order of arrival (e.g., task 4-OFF is chosen before task5-OFF).

In some embodiments, a queue length strategy may be used as atie-breaking strategy. In applying the queue length strategy, the taskassignment system 300 (switch 380 in combination with external pairingsystem 395 and internal pairing system 390) may determine the number ofON tasks (5 in this example) and the number of OFF tasks (also 5 in thisexample) from the queue (1) of tasks 320. The task assignment systemuses a weighted random number to select from the set of “ON” tasks or“OFF” tasks of the queue (1) of tasks 320. The task assignment system300 generates a weighted random number, and according to a value of theweighted random number, selects either an ON task or an OFF task. Forexample, the weighted random number is associated with a particular taskin the queue (1) based on a value of the weighted random number.

For example, a random number may be generated and then weighted based onthe distribution of ON tasks and OFF tasks in the task assignment system300. In some embodiments, the task assignment system 300 attempts toretain a similar number of ON tasks and OFF tasks (e.g., the totalnumber of ON tasks and the total number of OFF tasks have a differenceof 1 task, 5 tasks, 10 tasks, or 20 tasks). For example, if the taskassignment system 300 comprises four OFF tasks and six ON tasks in aqueue, the generated random number is likelier to have a valueassociated with an OFF task than to have a value associated with an ONtask.

In some configurations, the queue length technique can be considered“dangerous” when evaluated using the epoch benchmarking technique. Thisis because, in the queue length tie-breaking technique, the queue oftasks 320 that are pending in the current time period (“epoch”)continues to grow, representing a larger proportion of tasks 320. Thisincreases the proportion of tasks 320 of the current time period in thequeue of tasks. This will in turn increase the likelihood that a task ofthe current time period will get selected, meanwhile, the tasks from theolder cycle are stalled. The risk of starving these longer-waiting taskscan be mitigated by combining the queue length technique with “Front-N”tie-breaking technique. The “Front-N” tie-breaking technique isdescribed in detail in, e.g., U.S. Pat. Application No. 15/837,911,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.

Another example of assigning a task to an available agent while using atie-breaking algorithm is described below. In some embodiments where thetask assignment system 300 is in an L3 state, the task assignment system300 receives a plurality of available agents in addition to a queue ofavailable tasks. In some examples, the queue includes three sets oftasks; the first set of tasks is an ON set of tasks, the second set oftasks is an OFF set of tasks, and the third set of tasks is an ON set oftasks. For example, any of the first, second, and third sets of tasksmay have an elevated priority over priorities associated with theremaining sets of tasks. For example, the task assignment system mayapply prioritization to the third set of contacts. However, the appliedprioritization does not require that tasks of the third set of tasks areassigned before tasks of the second set of tasks because the second setof tasks and the third set of tasks have different ON/OFF statuses; forexample, the applied prioritization may only require that tasks of thethird set of tasks are assigned before tasks of the first set of tasksbecause both the first set of tasks and the third set of tasks have thesame ON status.

In one exemplary embodiment where the task assignment system 300 is inan L3 state, the total number of available agents is greater than thenumber of tasks in the first set of tasks. The tie-breaking algorithmdetermines that all available agents will be paired to ON tasks (e.g.,any of the tasks in the first set of tasks and the third set of tasks).After the available agents are paired, the OFF tasks from the second setof tasks are still waiting in queue, plus remainder ON tasks that werenot already paired from the first set of tasks and the third set oftasks. In some examples, one or more of the available agents who waspreviously paired to a task in the queue may come available while theOFF tasks from the second set of tasks and remainder ON tasks that werenot already paired are still waiting in queue. In some examples, thepreviously-paired and newly-available agents may now be paired to tasksin the second set of tasks.

In other embodiments of assigning a task to an available agent whileusing a tie-breaking algorithm, a queue wait strategy may be used as atie-breaking strategy. In applying the queue wait strategy, the taskassignment system 300 determines the average waiting time (or longestwaiting time) for all the “ON” tasks and all the “OFF” tasks. Forexample, the average waiting time for the “ON” tasks may be 40 seconds,and the average waiting time for the “OFF” tasks may be 60 seconds. Thetask assignment system 300 uses a weighted random number to select “ON”or “OFF” tasks in proportion to the relative wait times. In thisexample, an “OFF” task may be 50% more likely to be selected because thewait time for an “OFF” task, on average, is 50% longer than the “ON”tasks. In the queue wait strategy, the wait times for the “ON” tasks andthe “OFF” tasks change in real time, so, as in the example above, whenmore “OFF” tasks selected, the average waiting times eventuallyequalize. In such a case, the selection of “ON” tasks or “OFF” taskswill begin to approach 50-50 again.

In other embodiments of assigning a task to an available agent whileusing a tie-breaking algorithm, a queue flush strategy may be used as atie-breaking strategy. This strategy may be used in conjunction withepoch benchmarking. In applying the queue flush strategy, the taskassignment system 300 first assigns all remaining “ON” tasks from theprior time period (epoch) to available agents. While assigning the “ON”tasks of the prior epoch, the task assignment system 300 ignores any“OFF” and “ON” tasks that may have already arrived during any subsequentepochs. Upon assigning the “ON” tasks of the prior epoch, the taskassignment system 300 then assigns the “OFF” tasks of the prior epoch,while still ignoring any tasks received during subsequent epochs. Thisprocess is repeated until there are no tasks 320 from the prior epochthat are pending.

In some embodiments, the external pairing system operates in a“stateless” environment, where the task assignment system 300 mayprovide enough information within each route request for the externalpairing system 395 to make a pairing recommendation. For example, inaddition to the control flag (indicating shared control or full control)and the benchmark flag (indicating ON tasks, OFF tasks, Default, orMonitor Mode), the task assignment system 300 may provide the externalpairing system 395 with an adequate amount of state information withinthe route request (e.g., the complete set of agents available forpairing and the complete set of tasks available for pairing). In someembodiments, the stateless route request may include additionalinformation, such as an ordered set of agents ordered by idle timeand/or an ordered set of tasks ordered by waiting time.

In other embodiment, the external pairing system 395 may be in a“stateful” environment, where the task assignment system 300 providesevent information over the interface 385 such that the external pairingsystem 395 may maintain a mirror image of the state of the taskassignment system 300. In other words, every relevant event that takesplace in task assignment system 300 is shared with the external pairingsystem 395, such as time of arrival of every task, when an agent becomesavailable, when an agent logs out, when a call hangs up (in the contextof a call center), etc. The interface 385 may support error-checking orreset functionality to help the external pairing system 395 maintainfidelity in the mirrored state with the task assignment system 300.

The task assignment system 300 is illustrated as having a single queuewith the single switch 380 for simplicity. The task assignment system300 could include additional queues with corresponding switches, inwhich case, either each switch could be communicatively coupled to theinternal pairing system 390 and the external pairing system 395, orthere could an internal pairing system and an external pairing systemfor each switch.

FIG. 4 shows a flow diagram of a method 400 for sharing control ofassigning tasks between an external pairing system (e.g., externalpairing system 395) and a task assignment system (e.g., task assignmentsystem 300) with an internal pairing system (e.g., internal pairingsystem 390) according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

The task assignment method 400 may begin at block 410. At block 410, aplurality of task pairing requests and an agent pairing request may betransmitted to the external pairing system over an API. As describedabove, the plurality of task pairing requests may be generated based onpending tasks (e.g., task(s) 320, queue (1)). As described above, theeach of the plurality of tasks may be received at the switch 380 and beclassified as an “OFF” task or an “ON” task. Tasks assigned as “ON”tasks may be assigned to available agents using a first pairing strategy(e.g., BP strategy) and tasks assigned to available agents as “OFF” maybe assigned using a second pairing strategy (e.g., FIFO or PBR). Oncethe requests have been classified as “OFF” or “ON”, they may betransmitted to the external pairing system 395. The agent pairingrequest may be generated based on an available agent (e.g., agent(s)330). As described above, available agents may also be received atswitch 380. The external pairing system 395 may perform a tie-breakingstrategy to determine whether the first pairing strategy (e.g., BPstrategy for “ON” tasks”) or the second pairing strategy (FIFO or PBRfor “OFF” tasks) will be used to pair a task pairing request of theplurality of task pairing requests with the agent pairing request. Thetie-breaking strategies (e.g., sequential, queue wait, queue length, andqueue flush) are described with respect to FIG. 3 .

At block 420, a pairing recommendation, that is based at least in parton the plurality of task pairing requests, the first pairing strategy,the second pairing strategy, and the agent pairing request, may bereceived from the external pairing system. The pairing recommendationmay pair the agent pairing request of available agent 330 to any one ofthe plurality of task pairing requests related to the pending tasks 330.

FIG. 5 shows a flow diagram of a method 500 for sharing control ofassigning tasks between an external pairing system (e.g., externalpairing system 395) and a task assignment system (e.g., task assignmentsystem 300) with an internal pairing system (e.g., internal pairingsystem) according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

The task assignment method 500 may begin at block 510. At block 510, aplurality of task pairing requests and an agent pairing request may bereceived from the task assignment system over an API. As describedabove, the plurality of task pairing requests may be generated based onpending tasks (e.g., task(s) 320, queue (1)). As described above, theeach of the plurality of tasks may be received at the switch 380 and beclassified as an “OFF” task or an “ON” task. Tasks assigned as “ON”tasks may be assigned to available agents using a first pairing strategy(e.g., BP strategy) and tasks assigned to available agents as “OFF” maybe assigned using a second pairing strategy (e.g., FIFO or PBR). Oncethe requests have been classified as “OFF” or “ON”, they may betransmitted to the external pairing system 395. The agent pairingrequest may be generated based on an available agent (e.g., agent(s)330). As described above, available agents may also be received atswitch 380. The external pairing system 395 may perform a tie-breakingstrategy to determine whether the first pairing strategy (e.g., BPstrategy for “ON” tasks”) or the second pairing strategy (FIFO or PBRfor “OFF” tasks) will be used to pair a task pairing request of theplurality of task pairing requests with the agent pairing request. Thetie-breaking strategies (e.g., sequential, queue wait, queue length, andqueue flush) are described with respect to FIG. 3 .

At block 520, a pairing recommendation, that is based at least in parton the plurality of task pairing requests, the first pairing strategy,the second pairing strategy, and the agent pairing request, may betransmitted to the task assignment system. The pairing recommendationmay pair the agent pairing request of available agent 330 to any one ofthe plurality of task pairing requests related to the pending tasks 320.

At this point it should be noted that task assignment in accordance withthe present disclosure as described above may involve the processing ofinput data and the generation of output data to some extent. This inputdata processing and output data generation may be implemented inhardware or software. For example, specific electronic components may beemployed in a behavioral pairing module or similar or related circuitryfor implementing the functions associated with task assignment inaccordance with the present disclosure as described above.Alternatively, one or more processors operating in accordance withinstructions may implement the functions associated with task assignmentin accordance with the present disclosure as described above. If such isthe case, it is within the scope of the present disclosure that suchinstructions may be stored on one or more non-transitory processorreadable storage media (e.g., a magnetic disk or other storage medium),or transmitted to one or more processors via one or more signalsembodied in one or more carrier waves.

The present disclosure is not to be limited in scope by the specificembodiments described herein. Indeed, other various embodiments of andmodifications to the present disclosure, in addition to those describedherein, will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art from theforegoing description and accompanying drawings. Thus, such otherembodiments and modifications are intended to fall within the scope ofthe present disclosure. Further, although the present disclosure hasbeen described herein in the context of at least one particularimplementation in at least one particular environment for at least oneparticular purpose, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognizethat its usefulness is not limited thereto and that the presentdisclosure may be beneficially implemented in any number of environmentsfor any number of purposes.

1. A method comprising: receiving a first plurality of contactsassociated with a first pairing strategy; after receiving the firstplurality of contacts, receiving a second plurality of contactsassociated with a second pairing strategy; after receiving the secondplurality of contacts, receiving a third plurality of contactsassociated with the first pairing strategy; receiving a plurality ofavailable agents; and pairing, by at least one computer processorcommunicatively coupled to and configured to operate in a contact centersystem, each agent of the plurality of available agents to a contact ina set of contacts comprising the first plurality of contacts and thethird plurality of contacts; wherein a number of the plurality ofavailable agents is greater than a number of the first plurality ofcontacts, wherein any prioritization applied to the third plurality ofcontacts does not imply an assignment of the third plurality of contactsprior to the second plurality of contacts, wherein no other contactswere received between the receiving of the first and second pluralitiesof contacts, wherein, if an agent of the plurality of agents becomesavailable again, it can be paired with any contact of the secondplurality of contacts.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprisingdetermining, by the at least one computer processor, a prioritizationfor at least one contact of the third plurality of contacts.
 3. Themethod of claim 2, wherein the prioritization arises from a number ofcontacts pending assignment.
 4. The method of claim 2, wherein theprioritization arises from an expected wait time.
 5. The method of claim1, further comprising: after pairing each agent of the plurality ofavailable agents, receiving for a second pairing assignment at least oneagent of the plurality of available agents; and pairing, by the at leastone computer processor, the at least one agent with a contact in thesecond plurality of contacts.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein thefirst plurality of contacts is received during a first time period,wherein the second plurality of contacts is received during a secondtime period, and wherein the third plurality of contacts is receivedduring a third time period.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the secondtime period is directly adjacent to the first time period, and whereinthe third time period is directly adjacent to the second time period. 8.A system comprising: at least one computer processor communicativelycoupled to and configured to operate in a contact center system, whereinthe at least one computer processor is further configured to: receive afirst plurality of contacts associated with a first pairing strategy;after receiving the first plurality of contacts, receive a secondplurality of contacts associated with a second pairing strategy; afterreceiving the second plurality of contacts, receive a third plurality ofcontacts associated with the first pairing strategy; receive a pluralityof available agents; and pair each agent of the plurality of availableagents to a contact in a set of contacts comprising the first pluralityof contacts and the third plurality of contacts; wherein a number of theplurality of available agents is greater than a number of the firstplurality of contacts, wherein any prioritization applied to the thirdplurality of contacts does not imply an assignment of the thirdplurality of contacts prior to the second plurality of contacts, whereinno other contacts were received between the receiving of the first andsecond pluralities of contacts, wherein, if an agent of the plurality ofagents becomes available again, it can be paired with any contact of thesecond plurality of contacts.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the atleast one computer processor is further configured to: determine aprioritization for at least one contact of the third plurality ofcontacts.
 10. The system of claim 9, wherein the prioritization arisesfrom a number of contacts pending assignment.
 11. The system of claim 9,wherein the prioritization arises from an expected wait time.
 12. Thesystem of claim 8, wherein the at least one computer processor isfurther configured to: after pairing each agent of the plurality ofavailable agents, receive for a second pairing assignment at least oneagent of the plurality of available agents; and pair the at least oneagent with a contact in the second plurality of contacts.
 13. The systemof claim 8, wherein the first plurality of contacts is received during afirst time period, wherein the second plurality of contacts is receivedduring a second time period, and wherein the third plurality of contactsis received during a third time period.
 14. The system of claim 13,wherein the second time period is directly adjacent to the first timeperiod, and wherein the third time period is directly adjacent to thesecond time period.
 15. An article of manufacture for pairing contactsand agents in a contact center system comprising: a non-transitoryprocessor readable medium; and instructions stored on the medium;wherein the instructions are configured to be readable from the mediumby at least one computer processor communicatively coupled to andconfigured to operate in the contact center system and thereby cause theat least one computer processor to operate so as to: receive a firstplurality of contacts associated with a first pairing strategy; afterreceiving the first plurality of contacts, receive a second plurality ofcontacts associated with a second pairing strategy; after receiving thesecond plurality of contacts, receive a third plurality of contactsassociated with the first pairing strategy; receive a plurality ofavailable agents; and pair each agent of the plurality of availableagents to a contact in a set of contacts comprising the first pluralityof contacts and the third plurality of contacts; wherein a number of theplurality of available agents is greater than a number of the firstplurality of contacts, wherein any prioritization applied to the thirdplurality of contacts does not imply an assignment of the thirdplurality of contacts prior to the second plurality of contacts, whereinno other contacts were received between the receiving of the first andsecond pluralities of contacts, wherein, if an agent of the plurality ofagents becomes available again, it can be paired with any contact of thesecond plurality of contacts.
 16. The article of manufacture of claim15, wherein the instructions are further configured to cause the atleast one computer processor to operate so as to: determine aprioritization for at least one contact of the third plurality ofcontacts.
 17. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein theprioritization arises from a number of contacts pending assignment. 18.The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein the prioritizationarises from an expected wait time.
 19. The article of manufacture ofclaim 15, wherein the instructions are further configured to cause theat least one computer processor to operate so as to: after pairing eachagent of the plurality of available agents, receive for a second pairingassignment at least one agent of the plurality of available agents; andpair the at least one agent with a contact in the second plurality ofcontacts.
 20. The article of manufacture of claim 15, wherein the firstplurality of contacts is received during a first time period, whereinthe second plurality of contacts is received during a second timeperiod, and wherein the third plurality of contacts is received during athird time period.